Robbery in the Grocery Store
by Pineapple Angel 14
Summary: In response to a clever prompt in my Honors English Class. Steve and Oscar are in an all night convenience store, when a shaky gunman attempts to rob the store, without much luck. And when the bad guys get scared...somebody's gonna get hurt! Rated for some violence. POSSIBLE character death! Please read! My first Six Mill story! Better than it sounds? :)


**AN: If any Six Mill fans are actually reading this, and not just my followers, hi! I'm semi-new to the SMDM world, so bear with me as I might get some details a TAD bit off…but it should be ok! And to my followers, a brief explanation, The Six Million Dollar Man was an iconic action series about the worlds' first bionic man, Steve Austin, played by my latest Oldies Crush, the incomparable, Lee Majors! Sigh…I really love that guy! ANYWAY…this story is based off a writing prompt we did in my high school honors English class, where we all closed our eyes, and listened to an audio clip of a noisy room, imagining a story about what was happening, until the teacher threw a giant text book on to the floor, breaking our concentration. She said then, to write a story about your imagining and what was the loud "boom" heard? SO…now, after school, I felt that I needed to re-do my answer for fun, for all the shows I love writing! And this is also my first Six Mill story, that I've written and posted so bear with me! Now, without further ado, "Robbery in the Grocery Store" **

Steve rolled his eyes as a large heavy-set man pushed past him and Oscar in the line for the checkout. Steve nervously drummed his fingers along the thin metal rod of the handle of the shopping cart as he lost himself to his reflection on the events of the past day. Nothing had gone well for Steve that day. He had arrived late to the OSI office, after his car had received a flat tire. While he had been changing the tire, holding the car up with his bionic right arm, and quickly exchanging the tire with his left, his favorite pair of horn-rimmed gold-lensed sunglasses fell out of his coat pocket, unnoticed; that is, until he set down the car again, only to hear a loud scrunch and snapping of the dimming glass.

Upon arriving at work, he had gone into Oscar's office, and helped himself to a pot of hot coffee which sat on the small hot plate on Oscar's shelf. When he tried to pour the coffee, it spilled, leaking scalding hot coffee onto his nice suit, through his pocket, and staining his wallet, as well as slightly burning his side. After slightly cleaning himself up, a security guard came into the office, to check for intruders, and as Steve was sitting by himself in the room, because Oscar had stepped out to retrieve some misplaced files, Steve was powerfully confronted by the guard. The security man, though he had worked in many offices, had never before worked for the OSI, and so, he had never seen Steve, and did not believe him when Steve tried to say that he was an agent. Steve attempted to show his OSI id, but was shocked to fine the card now illegible, due to the coffee stains leaked on it. The guard laid his strong hands on Steve's shoulders, and started to steer him out of the room, but Steve protested, and as he began to shake the man loose, the guard quickly chopped his fist into the back of Steve's neck, in a place that would instantly render him unconscious. Steve grunted in shock as he sank to the floor \

A minute later, the guard was searching Steve's motionless frame, for weapons or un-stained identification, when he, the guard, heard a surprised shout of "STEVE?" and the rustle of papers to the ground.

Oscar came through his doorway, carrying the files that he'd retrieved to share with Steve, and stopped in his tracks to see the large new security officer kneeling over the unmoving body of his closest friend, and most trusted agent. Oscar let the papers fall to the ground as he ran across the room, pushed the other man aside, and leaned over his fallen friend. At first he feared that Steve was dead, as he felt for a pulse in the nearest wrist to himself, the right one, but remembering Steve's un-human arm, he quickly dropped it and felt the other one. Thankfully, he found a steady pulse beating under his own fingers. Oscar then stood and confronted the guard. "WHAT HAPPENED TO COLONEL AUSTIN!?"

"Colonel?" The guard gasped in shock, realizing that he had probably just knocked out a very important person.

"YES! Colonel Steve Austin, United States Air Force and a very important OSI agent! What did you do to him!?" Oscar yelled. And how were you able to get around his quick bionic reflexes? He silently wondered.

"Well…he..um…was in your office! I didn't know! I'm so sorry, Mr. Goldman! I didn't know! He tried to show me an ID, but it was stained with coffee, so I couldn't tell! I'm sorry, sir! It won't happen again!" The guard stammered, trying to perfect his excuse.

Oscar was just about to tell him that he would make sure it wouldn't happen again, and tell the man to pack up and get the heck out of there, before he had him thrown out, when his thoughts were interrupted by a small pained moan from below him.

"Steve!? Steve are you alright!?" Oscar knelt, quickly, at his friend's side, gently shaking him, anxious to see if his super-human friend had been hurt. With his bionics and near invincibility, it was rare to see Steve seriously hurt or rendered unconscious, and rarely a time passed, when this happened, that there were no bad after-effects with his bionics.

"Well maybe I could tell you, if you would just stop shaking me!" Steve groaned back, irritably.

Oscar instantly let go of his bionic friend and nervously tried to fix his mistake. "Oh! I'm sorry, pal! Here! Let me help you up, come on!" He gently helped Steve stand and he carefully set him down again, in a nearby chair.

"Thanks, Oscar…sorry…I'll be alright….it's just my back and well…neck….it feels like I got hit with a crowbar! What even happened!? The last thing I can remember is trying to shake off the big guard guy…he didn't believe that I even worked here! Can you believe that!? And then I just fell a flash of pain, and then you shaking me!" Steve shook his head and ran his quick fingers through his loose dark blonde hair.

The remorseful guard poked around Oscar and gave a tiny, nervous smile to Steve. "I'm sorry Colonel Austin! I didn't know! You're ID was…..and well I was told that only Mr. Goldman should be in the office today…."

"That's alright….sorry to cause the troubles….I did drop in at the wrong time, I was running late this morning and was supposed to be here earlier, but as I came in later, Oscar had some….things…..he wanted to go over with me." Steve gave his friendly half smile, and wink.

"Alright, you can go now, just try and be sure not to knock any of my other agents out today, alright? I can't afford to have them all unconscious if the country's in turmoil or something, now can I?!" Oscar ended in a slight joke, but from his harsh tone, no one could tell if it was meant to be funny or not.

The guard quickly nodded and retreated. After a few minutes, the pain in Steve's back had become worse and it had taken several minutes of careful rubbing and gentle massaging by Callahan, the ever-resourceful secretary, to get the reddening bruise on Steve's upper back to dull to a minor pain.

"STEVE! STEVE!?" Oscar nearly shouted in his friend's ear.

Steve jumped. He looked around, remembering that they were now in the grocery store, shopping with his employer, who had offered to drive him home, as his car had been damaged when another car bashed into it in the parking garage, and it was in the shop. Along the way home, Oscar insisted that he needed to stop for some things at an all night supermarket, so they had stopped, and both men spent a few hours wandering the aisles of the store. Steve pulled his arm down from behind his back, where he had been absently rubbing his injury.

"I'm sorry Oscar! I was a long ways away…."

"Never mind…say, should we have gotten Rudy to check out that back? It seems to be bothering you quite a bit! No trouble with anything else, though, right?" Oscar hinted at Steve's bionics. He smiled at the nod he received from Steve.

"No…I'm all right! No need for Rudy to give up his time for something trivial like this…I tell ya what, if it's still hurting in a couple days, then you can call Rudy? All right?" Steve smirked at Oscar for mothering him so.

They laughed and started to roll their carts forward, as they were next, after the large man who had previously pushed in front of them. Then, the cashier and the two spies all gasped when the man pulled a black pistol from his belt. He pointed it at the cashier and ordered for her to give him all of the money that was there. He also swung around for Steve and Oscar to empty their own pockets and to act real careful, because he didn't want any trouble. The two men shot anxious looks at each other. Steve could usually take out this man, with his special talents, but not with the risk of another woman present and the gun. Oscar nodded for Steve to do as the man told them, and he quickly set down his stained wallet, a measly pocket full of change, and the shards of his broken sunglasses.

"Hey look, Pal, I'm going to take out a gun, but don't get panicky or anything! I have no intention of using it, I'm just emptying my pockets like you said, alright!?" Oscar gently warned the hefty man.

With his bionic eye, Steve quickly stared the stranger down. He was a tallish man, not much taller than himself, and was of a stocky, strong build. The man was, judging from tints of pre grey hair mixed in with his white blonde, probably around his late 40's or 50's. He was dressed in a shabby dark suit with a dark red colored tie. Steve stared intently at a splotch on the tie that seemed a bit darker red than the rest, he thought that it might have been a splatter of blood, but he couldn't be sure. The man's gun hand was shaky, this showed that he was probably desperate, needing money, and was inexperienced at this type of thing. But this was not a good thing as some may think, for a robber that nervous and shaky with his gun, would end up shooting if he got scared. Not thinking. Just squeeze that trigger for "protection". And being in the law enforcement field, Steve and Oscar knew the terrible things that could happen from this.

The gunman gasped and his eyes grew more fearful when he heard Oscar's mention of a gun, and he panicked. "NO! Don't you dare pull out a gun on me y'hear!? See! I'll….I'll….I'll shoot her or your friend here if you try to pull anything do you hear me! Just stop! Lady! Pile out that money for me and put it in a sack! Just dump it all out, and I'll be on my way, please lady! I won't ask again!"

She made the regretful mistake of trying to say something against his plans. "Sir! I'm sorry but we just cleared out our money count for the week! It was taken to the vault in the bank an hour ago! All we have is what meager sums are in our own pockets! Please! Put the gun away!" She squealed in terror.

The man began to shiver in panic. This was not how things were supposed to happen. His hand trembled even more and he turned to her, with a scowl. "I SAID GIMME THAT MONEY!" He shouted, his face growing red with anger and frustration.

"Sir! NO! I don't have any…" The woman began, but then, IT happened.

Steve's quick eye saw the recent tremor in the man's hand and could see his hand tensing around the trigger; if nothing was done, fast, that woman, and probably all of them would be dead. Steve shouted and dived forward towards the man, trying to clear the few yards of distance and tackle the man, disarming him. Upon hearing the shout, the armed stranger swung around to face his attacker. In the force of the turn, his hand pressed into the gun, jamming the trigger into his finger, kicking off the firing mechanism. He shot off the gun as Steve neared.

Steve gave a small pained grunt when the bullet made impact, sending him quickly crashing to the floor in an unmoving heap. He made no motion. Blood poured quickly from his shirt-front and pooled on the white tile floor beneath him.

"STEVE!" Oscar screamed as he saw his best friend try to be a hero, and fall to the ground. He quickly kneeled beside him, and rolled him onto his back, and reached for a pulse, but was interrupted by the gunman.

"No! Get away from him! Unless you want the same thing!" After waving his gun at the woman and Oscar, he pushed them back, behind the counter, and stepped cautiously over to where Steve's body lay crumpled onto the floor. He kicked at the body, rolling it over the rest of the way, then bent slightly, taking Steve's right arm, to feel for a pulse, and upon finding one, he was driven the rest of the way to pure insanity. "OH NO! NO! NO! I killed him! I did it! I killed a man! No! I can't be arrested for murder! No! I just can't take this anymore! AAAhhhhh!" The man was clearly guilty, and facing inner struggles against his guilt, and it was driving him to utter madness. "NOOO!" He lashed out, away from the crumpled pile of bleeding bionics. He ran from the site and ran towards the nearest door, he ran out of the door, and ran out into the dark street. Finally given a clear opportunity, Oscar ran after him, towards the door, flipped out his gun, and shot 3 shots straight through the shiny glass doors. The gunman didn't even let out a grunt. He was dead before he hit the ground. Two shots to vital regions in his back, and another in his head.

Oscar ran back to his friend, hoping that the man was wrong, and that he was still alive. He noticed that Steve's right arm lay more within reach, so that was probably what the man had felt! "Steve! Steve? Come on, pal! Come back to us!" Oscar knelt down, and tentatively reached for Steve's real arm. He started to press down his finger, but he hesitated. It was almost as if he didn't want to know. He had to believe that Steve was alive, and that he would be going back to work, tomorrow with him and that he would be there, and be his friend forever. But if he pressed down to find nothing, what would he do? How would he handle the death of someone THAT close? He shook the thoughts out of his mind and jammed down his fingers.

"STEVE!" Oscar gasped. There, under his fingers, was a soft, yet steady thump of a heartbeat. "He's alive!" He carefully straightened Steve's body out and tore open his shirt and jacket. He gasped and winced upon seeing the angry red circle with a pool of crimson flowing nearby on Steve's upper right chest, near his shoulder, but very much still in the human parts. Oscar was startled to find himself battling tears, in fear of Steve's impending and somewhat probable death. As head of the OSI, he had seen many people die, from bullets, or explosions, and many of them had been friends, or at least acquaintances of his. Over time, he had trained himself not to get too attached too much of anything, and to steel himself when he sent an agent, especially one that he was close with, like Steve, out on a dangerous mission, or when they were in trouble. For those like Steve, although he always ignored it, a little voice inside of him always tried to say, "NO! Steve! Don't go do that! It's too dangerous, pal! It's not your affair to deal with! You shouldn't have to die for some foreign government that we're protecting, or trying to stop an explosion in an empty building!" But no, he always pushed it away, and did what was technically "right" and he sent them ahead to their missions, and some never returned. Now, holding a quickly-whitening injured Steve in his arms, Oscar's emotions won over him. Yes, he'd been in similar positions with many agents and friends, them dying near to him, and he had been of course saddened, and guilty, but this was all together different. Most of those people signed up or volunteered to be agents. They chose to do this with their lives, and he was there to do his job of assigning them their tasks…but Steve? He was completely different.

Oscar had seen him die before. Of course he hadn't known him then, but he'd still seen Steve Austin, NASA and United States Air Forces Colonel, astronaut, and then test pilot, die for over 50 seconds. He had been resuscitated, but the damage done to his body was extensive. He lost his legs, arm, and eye…and his will to live. He'd gotten so low that he'd try to kill himself one night in the recovery hospital, and when a nurse came in and tried to stop him, he begged her with a pitiful airy "Please!?" to let him finish the deed.

Then came his, "miraculous recovery" and rebuilding. This is where Oscar came in. He'd signed the ok for doctor Rudy Wells, scientific genius in the new, secret field of bionics, to rebuild Steve Austin using 6 million dollars worth of skin-covered technology. Then, "Steve Austin" was just a name on paper to Oscar, but after he was completely well, and began doing the special tasks that he was drafted for at the OSI, Oscar had come to know the man behind the name. He enjoyed watching Steve's vitality and his never ending charm and success on any girl he tried to seduce. He was also very grateful to Steve because many times, Steve had saved his or other agents or friends lives, without thought to his own safety. But now, this was not even any assignment. A man like Steve, with his abilities and strengths should not have to die like this; gunned down in a late-night robbery at two in the morning.

Oscar shook his head, trying to shake away the tears that threatened the barrier he had set up against them. The cashier, whose name tag read "Leah" shakily stepped from around the counter and kneeled down with him. "Is there anything we can do for him?"

Oscar glanced up; he rid himself of his emotional thoughts and sentimental day dreams. This was important, Steve was hurt and they had to help him. "Um..yes! Call an ambulance, and police…but first call Doctor Rudy Wells…the number's on the back of a card in both of our wallets. Tell him that "Steve's been shot and Oscar says to get down to…." What's the nearest hospital? Never mind…just tell him to go there, "and that Oscar says it's really bad and he needs to hurry. Tell him: Code Red." Alright? Got that? Then call the ambulance and the police. Say, where could I find some towels and things like that?" Leah pointed the OSI director towards an aisle that held bath supplies, and another with medical supplies. And he scurried off. In a moment, he retuned. He carried several sheets, a pillow, a large first aid kit, a roll of bandages, and some water. He carefully lifted Steve's head up and rested him back down, on top of the ready pillow. Oscar completed the task of removing Steve's upper-garments and then, took some cleansing supplies out of the kit. He dampened a small cloth with a cleansing chemical and gently wiped Steve's injured chest with it. When the chemical sank into his open flesh, Steve gave a small whimper and started to thrash around, but soon fell silent again. After mopping up some of the blood, Oscar gently rolled a sheet into a tight pad and pressed it into the wound, applying as much pressure as he could.

"Hey, Leah!? Could you help me with this? I need to wrap a bandage around him, but I need to keep pressure on the wound!"

"Oh yes! I called all of the people you told me to, and Dr. Wells told me to tell you that "He's not the best on bullets, but he'll be there with his staff for Steve."" Leah came back from where she had just set down her phone, from calling, and again knelt with Oscar, at Steve's side.

"Alright, I'll hold down the towel, and you wrap this bandage around, him. Wrap it under his arm there, and um… up on the other shoulder. Tie it tight, now!" Oscar directed her as she tugged at the white strips.

A few minutes later, Oscar was sitting, leaning against the checkout counter, with Steve pulled protectively into his lap, his head propped up against Oscar's chest, and Steve began to stir. He moaned softly and his shiny blue eyes fluttered open, slowly. He shook his head slightly, and licked his lips, just barely avoiding the sliver of a moustache that was artfully grown above his lip.

"Steve! Come on Steve! Come back to us!" Oscar gently shook him, trying to waken him the rest of the way.

"Hey…Oscar….what happened…I'm hurting something awful….feels….like….shot…ow…." Steve groaned and started flailing around, trying to pry off the bandages to see what was hurting him. "OSCAR! I can't—my arm….legs…can't move 'em….and my eye! They're all…."

"Hey! Pal, don't try to move! It's alright, Rudy told me once that if you have any extensive blood loss then you're….you know…might not work too well…you've been shot, Steve, and we're waiting for help! But you're going to be ok, alright? You're going to be just fine! Just hang in there for me, pal, ok? Hang in there…" Oscar held firmly to his friend and tried to comfort him as he grew frantic, not being able to move.

"Shot? What happened? Are you alright? Who?...What?..." Steve shook his head again, trying to remember what had happened.

"We're in an all night convenience store. And we were just checking out, when a man with a gun started to rob the place, he was going after the cashier, when you jumped at him…." Oscar paused as he could see Steve remembering. The events flashed before his eyes, the shaky hand, his dive, the flash of the shot, the impact of the bullet hitting him, and painfully falling to the ground.

"What happened after that? Did he get away? Did he hurt her? Or you?" Steve frantically searched his superior for injuries, frightened by the splatters of blood he saw every where, and then realized the blood was his own.

"Shh…it's alright, he tried to run…but I got him…he's dead…and Leah, the cashier is fine. You just rest easy, Steve…don't try to do anything…just…just take it easy…you're going to be fine." Oscar lied through his teeth. He knew that Steve was hurt badly. He also knew that if he did not get immediate help that the wound would take him. However, being a cyborg had its advantages, in this situation. The rest of Steve's body didn't really need the blood that he was losing so besides the temporary loss of use in his limbs, it wasn't hurting him in that sense, but he was still losing vital blood. Even though they had quickly slowed the bleeding, Steve had still lost a great deal of his vital supply, and every minute was crucial.

"Hey Oscar? You know, you should just never give up being the head of OSI, and become an agent…'cause if you were captured by the bad guys and they asked you something, and you lied? They would know you were lying before you even thought of what you were going to say….You really just shouldn't try…." Steve attempted a joke, with a tiny wink, but his eyes fell closed as his body racked in a round of heavy coughs.

Oscar gave a nervous laugh and held on to his friend, quietly cooing and comforting him. Oscar's ears perked excitedly at the sound of a nearby siren. "Steve! Come on Steve! Wake up! Come on, pal! I hear the help coming! They're close! You're going to be fine, Steve, just fine!"

"I don't hear anything!" Steve complained in a small moan. "Either you're lying to me again, or you stole Jamie's ear…'cause I don't…" Steve's head swayed, and his already impaired vision blurred, and darkened. He suddenly felt more hands around him, and the partial bandages being torn and changed.

"It's alright, pal! You're going to be fine! You're safe now! I'm gonna get you to the hospital, and you're going to be just fine!" Oscar placed a hand on his agent's shoulder, knowing that he'd have to talk to Leah later, making sure to swear her to secrecy about the things that Steve had been babbling.

Safe. Fine? Steve was comforted by Oscar's words and decided to believe him. He suddenly felt very weak. Steve grew very weary and his eye lids became heavy.

Safe. Steve felt safe now. He allowed himself to be pulled back into the beckoning darkness. His eyes rolled slowly backwards into his head, and he breathed out an airy sigh, falling into a painless oblivion.

**AN: Hey! Thanks for reading my first attempt at a SMDM fanfiction story! I hope you enjoyed it! And if you REALLY liked it….just click that little "Favorite" or "Follow" button! I know you want to! ;) Hey, so reviews from anybody are greatly appreciate, as is constructive criticism! One thing: I know Oscar was NOT the original "OSO" director who saw Steve's accident, but in my stories, "Mr. Spencer" does not exist! And, to the question of did Steve die at the end of the story? Well, that's up for you to decide! Again, thanks for reading, and if you are really feeling that you liked this, or would like more like it…Follow me! 'Cause I plan to write much more Six Mill and Lee Majors related stuff in the near future! And the more people who I think care, the sooner I'll get 'em done! Thanks again! **


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